6 Ways to Motivate Yourself to Exercise

Some days you wake up and you are so motivated to exercise you might even be a little excited to get to the gym. However, there may be some days where all you want to do is hibernate on the sofa and watch TV.

We are constantly bombarded with images and videos on social media of celebrities and influencers with the ‘perfect bodies’ who are always showcasing their latest fitness routines and diet plans to lose weight and tone up. We can even waste time figuring out why we shouldn’t do a workout rather than actually just getting up and doing it.
So, how do they get the motivation to exercise every single day?
Breaking through the mental blocks that prevent us from starting exercise is often the most challenging part of a workout. That’s why we have come up with 6 simple ways to motivate yourself to exercise so you can feel happy and healthy and exercise in a way that works for you.

How to Get Motivated to Exercise

1. Fail to Prepare, Prepare to Fail

Cut out any temptation to procrastinate and prepare in advance of your workout so you don’t waste time doing everything else but the actual exercise. Preparation is a key source of motivation when you might not feel particularly enthusiastic about your upcoming workout. This could be as simple as:
– Packing your gym bag the night before.
– Sitting down on a Sunday night and plan when you are going to go to the gym or attend a class for the upcoming week.
– Booking your exercise classes in advance and putting them in your calendar.
– Plan your workouts in advance and what area of the body you intend to focus on during each workout.
– Prepping your meals and snacks throughout the week.

2. Change your attitude

Knowing how to motivate yourself to exercise can be tough, there’s no denying it. There can be many reasons why individuals take up exercise, whether it’s to lose weight, adopt a healthier lifestyle, “burn off” some unhealthy eating habits or simply to tone up a little.
Some people may make a lifestyle change which stems from an unknowingly “unhealthy” attitude to motivate themselves to exercise such as “earning” those takeaways or feeling less guilty about that big night out. Whilst this negative attitude can work in the short term to motivate you, in the long term it can be damaging to how you think about exercise and food. Instead, try altering your attitude from punishing your body to thanking your body and appreciating what it can do.
So how does this help you to motivate yourself to exercise? Tracking your workouts and seeing your progress can be one of the biggest motivators to get to the gym. Focusing on your progress could be something as simple as increasing the weight on a lift, being able to do a new exercise or doing more reps of a particular exercise rather than focusing on how many calories you are burning. By switching your mindset and understanding the true relationship between diet, exercise and weight loss, your motivation increases in order to see what else your body can do.

3. Surround yourself with motivation

See your motivation everywhere. This could be having a motivational quote or picture of a goal as your phone background or having quotes on your bathroom mirror, it might be cheesy, but it’s simple and effective. It is also important to have the right people around you. You are the sum of the 5 people you spend the most time around. So, make those people count! By surrounding yourself with positive people who have similar goals to you, your motivation to exercise will naturally increase.

4. Routine

It’s important to remember that not everyone, not even top-level athletes, wake up every morning with endless amounts of motivation to exercise. It’s important to realise this and to not beat yourself up about it if you go through a period of lacking motivation. But when we do go through these periods it is crucial to rely on routine to exercise.
Routine can be crucial during periods of time where your motivation is low; this could be something as simple as taking on a new training programme that you can easily follow. Or you could even just go to the same exercise class at the same time every week as this is a great way to establish exercise as part of your daily routine.

5. Mix it up

Routines are helpful but it is also important to be able to allow yourself to mix it up every once in a while, too. By allowing variety in your exercise routine, it keeps your interest and motivation for the type of exercise you are doing. This could be going to a yoga class instead of the gym if you are feeling tired, or even making an effort to try a new type of exercise every few months.
For example, if you usually go to the gym on your own why not mix it up and try a group exercise class (check out our blog to find out the benefits of group exercise). One of the great things about fitness is that there is always something new to try!

6. Write down how you feel after a workout

One of the best ways to sustain your motivation is to remember how good you’re going to feel after you’ve worked out. So next time you exercise, take a journal and make a note of how you are feeling before you exercise and then how you feel after your workout. By writing this down it helps to reaffirm to yourself how much better you feel after you’ve exercised, plus its always good to read over if you’re ever not in the mood to exercise.

Ultimately, it is important to remember that our motivation levels change daily, so sometimes we are going to have to dig deep and go to the gym when we would rather stay on the sofa in order to reach our goals.
At Beckwith Health Club, we take pride in knowing all of our gym members so our friendly staff are always on hand to offer you that extra bit of motivation when you need it!

Opening Times

Monday

06:30

21:00

Tuesday

06:30

21:00

Wednesday

06:30

21:00

Thursday

06:30

21:00

Friday

06:30

20:00

Saturday

08:30

15:00

Sunday

08:30

15:00

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